Every computer does nothing but execute, very rapidly, a sequence of instructions. These instructions are called "Programs". A computer won't do anything without a Program, and everything a computer does is determined by the Program it is running and the hardware it is connected to. Nothing more.
Giving control to any program gives control of everything in that computer to the whims of that program. Or more precisely, to the whims of the person who wrote the program.
If your computer gets a Virus it is because a program in your computer allowed it to be loaded into your computer and executed.
For the vast majority of computers using the Intel based processors the program that allows Virus to be loaded and run is Windows.
Before Windows, when computers were running DOS there were no Viruses because DOS did not give control of your computer to a program it got from the communications ports. Possibly you could get another program and run it under DOS and that program could pass control to something received from the communications port.
Microsoft, trying to be cute, made it possible to get and pass control to programs from the communications port. Thus Microsoft made virus possible. And Microsoft should be held accountable. Yes, if Microsoft was forced to remove the ability to put programs into our computers and run them some facilities and features would have to go away. Such features would be the "upgrading" of your software, sometimes without your even knowing it. But there are better was to distribute fixes and add features.
When Windows allows a program to be put into your computer and executed everything in your computer can be exploited. This includes getting any information in your computer from files created by programs such as Quicken, or account management programs you may have got from your bank or stock broker. As we have seen the contents of you email address book has been exploited in simple "worm" programs.
I am getting beyond what I wanted to say about computer basics. Check other pages for more details, and the only way I know to keep your private information from being extracted from your computer.
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